Early life and education

Wilby was born in Rangoon, Burma to a corporate executive father. He was educated at Sedbergh School in Cumbria, and from there went on to study for a degree in Mathematics at Grey College, University of Durham, and then at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Career

Wilby's first appearance on screen was in the Oxford Film Company 1982 production Privileged alongside Hugh Grant. He is known to an international audience for roles in Maurice (1987), for which he received Venice Film Festival's Best Actor award with co-star Hugh Grant. Along with Grant, Wilby has always been best known for his regular inclusion in the Merchant-Ivory film 'family' which also boasts Rupert Graves, Helena Bonham-Carter, Emma Thompson, and Anthony Hopkins among its regulars. He then starred in A Handful of Dust (1988), for which he won the Bari Film Festival Best Actor award. Then came A Tale of Two Cities (1989), Howards End (1992), the critically acclaimed Regeneration (1997 film), Ismail Merchant's Cotton Mary (1999), Gosford Park (2001) and Alain Robbe-Grillet's C'est Gradiva qui vous appelle (2006) co-starring Arielle Dombasle which premiered at the Venice Film Festival.

On stage, he starred in the 1995 revival of John Osborne's A Patriot for Me by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Barbican Theatre. He then appeared in a production of 'Helping Harry' at the Jermyn Street Theatre in 2001; as well, in 2004, he appeared as the title character in a run of 'Don Juan' at the Lyric Theatre. Other, more recent theatre productions James has starred in include a tour of 'Less Than Kind' (2012) by Terence Rattigan, 'On Emotion'(2008) at the Soho Theatre, and 'The Consultant' (2011) by Neil Fleming and the Hydrocracker Theatre Company at Theatre 503 in London.

Personal life

He is married to Shana Louise and has four children: Barnaby John Loxley, Florence Hannah Mary, Nathaniel Jerome and Jesse Jack. One of his many hobbies includes yachting. He is also an experienced and well-read wine connoisseur.

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1982	Privileged	Jamie
1985	Dreamchild	Baker
	A Room with a View	Party Guest	Uncredited
1987	Maurice	Maurice Hall
1988	A Handful of Dust	Tony Last
	A Summer Story	Mr. Ashton
1989	Conspiracy	Stringer
1991	The Siege of Venice	Milord Runbiff
	Adam Bede	Arthur Donnithorne
1992	Howards End	Charles Wilcox
	Immaculate Conception	Alistair
1994	La partie d'échecs	Lord Staunton
1997	Regeneration	2nd Lt. Siegfried Sassoon
1998	An Ideal Husband	Sir Robert Chiltern
1999	Tom's Midnight Garden	Uncle Alan Kitson
	Cotton Mary	John MacIntosh
2001	Jump Tomorrow	Nathan
	Gosford Park	Freddie Nesbitt
2004	De-Lovely	Edward Thomas
2006	Gradiva (C'est Gradiva qui vous appelle)	John Locke
2008	Lady Godiva	Leofric
2009	Shadows in the Sun	Robert
2011	We Need to Talk About Keiran	Professor Hugh Merrill

Television

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1984	The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes	Young Barclay	Episode: "The Crooked Man"
	The Bill	Higgins	Episode: "A Friend in Need"
1985	Dutch Girls	Dundine	TV movie
1988	The Storyteller	Prince	Episode: "Sapsorrow")
1989	A Tale of Two Cities	Sydney Carton	TV mini-series
	Mother Love	Christopher "Kit" Vesey	TV mini-series
1991	Screen One	Michael Evans	Episode: "Tell Me That You Love Me")
1993	You, Me and It	Charles Henderson	TV mini-series, 3 episodes
	Lady Chatterley	Sir Clifford Chatterley	4 episodes
1994	Crocodile Shoes	Ade Lynn	TV mini-series, 6 episodes
1996	The Treasure Seekers	Henry Carlisle	TV movie
	Witness Against Hitler	Helmuth James von Moltke	TV movie
	Tales from the Crypt	Nick Marvin	Episode: "Horrors in the Night"
1997	The Woman in White	Sir Percival Glyde	TV movie
	Original Sin	Gerard Etienne	TV series
1999	The Dark Room	Dr. Alan Protheroe	TV movie
2000	Trial & Retribution	James McCready	2 episodes
2001	Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years	Zippo Montefiore	1 episode
2002	Bertie and Elizabeth	King George VI, aka "Bertie"	TV film
	Westlife: Unbreakable - The Greatest Hits, Volume I	High class customer ("Uptown Girl")	video
	George Eliot: A Scandalous Life	George Spencer	TV film
2003	Murder in Mind	Daniel Morton/Sir Richard Morton	Episode: "Echoes"
	Sparkling Cyanide	Stephen Farraday	TV movie
2004	Island at War	Sen. James Dorr	TV mini-series, 3 episodes
	Silent Witness	Matt Gibb	TV series, 2 episodes
	Foyle's War	Major Cornwall	Episode: "They Fought in the Fields")
2005	Jericho	Alan Mills	TV series (1 episode: "The Hollow Men")
2006	Surviving Disaster	David Sheahan	Episode: "Fastnet Yacht Race"
	Agatha Christie's Marple: The Sittaford Mystery	Stanley Kirkwood	TV movie
	Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire	Ofonius Tigellinus	Episode: "Nero")
2007	Lewis	Hugh Mallory	Episode: "Expiation"
	The Last Days of the Raj	Lord Mountbatten	TV movie
	Clapham Junction	Julian Rowan	TV movie
	Little Devil	Adrian Bishop	TV mini-series, Episode: "Episode #1.3"
	Impact Earth	Josh Hayden	TV movie
2008	A Risk Worth Taking	Patrick Trenchard	TV film
	Agatha Christie's Poirot	Andrew Restarick	Episode: "Third Girl"
2010	Midsomer Murders	Edward Milton	Episode: "The Made-to-Measure Murders"
2011	Secret Diary of a Call Girl	Henry	Episode: "Episode #4.4"
2012	Titanic	J. Bruce Ismay	TV series, 4 episodes
	The Best Possible Taste	Wilfred De'Ath	BBC TV movie
2013	The Great Train Robbery	John Wheater	TV mini-series, Episode: A Copper's Tale
2014	Law & Order: UK	Charles Hutton	Episode: Bad Romance
2015	Death in Paradise	Elias Thomson	1 episode
2016	Churchill's Secret	Brendan Bracken	TV movie

[ Source: Wikipedia ]